Charles Dellschau’s curious notebooks talk elliptically about a mysterious lifting gas called “NB Gas”: this was discovered (or, perhaps more accurately, harnessed) by miner Peter Mennis. It was created by dripping a green liquid (which Dellschau nicknamed “suppe”, for “pea soup”) onto an electrode, releasing the “NB Gas”, thus giving – so the theory goes – an airship buoyancy, and defying gravity. Unlike hydrogen, “NB Gas” was thought to be far less explosive, and thus more suitable for safe airshippery.
Going through the list of possible lifting gases, the best candidate by far would seem to be ammonia (NH3): though because its lifting power is far less than that of hydrogen, ammonia balloon envelopes would need to be significantly larger than hydrogen balloon envelopes (and let’s put all the other practical issues to one side too).
In his notes, Dellschau seemed not to know either what NB Gas was or why it was called that. But perhaps – I wonder – it was supposed to have been written “N-B” Gas instead? Because if so, the reason for the name would have surely been hidden in plain sight:
Now you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it, can you?
I think old Prussian didn’t have ß (according to Claude AI) but assuming it was Nß gas what could that be?
Another gas, H2S, is believed to be the culprit in one, well actually two, of Australia’s strangest unsolved deaths! Those of Dr Gilbert Bogle and Mrs Margaret Chandler, who died following a 1963 New Year’s Day tryst by the Lane Cove River! They appeared to have been poisoned but no common poisons could be found! It was speculated that Dr Bogle was a spy or had been assassinated due to his scientific knowledge… Shades of SM here… but the culprit was probably a sadly gaseous river!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogle–Chandler_case
Meanwhile, on another blog, the SM gas coupon theory has re-emerged…